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TRS Arden one-two as Quinn takes his first British F4 win of season

Quinn claims fourth Ford EcoBoost-powered win of career and first of season.

Oscar Piastri climbs several places to bring home TRS Arden one-two.

Oliver York takes sixth Ford F4 Challenge Cup class win.

Caldwell becomes youngest F4 driver in history and scores points on debut.

11 JUNE, 2017 – Alex Quinn scored his first win of the 2017 F4 British Championship certified by FIA – powered by Ford EcoBoost campaign at Croft ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri in a superb one-two finish for TRS Arden.

Starting on the front row Quinn made an excellent getaway, as team-mate Ayrton Simmons fell into the clutches of fast starting cars behind. Piastri followed Quinn’s example as the lights went out, charging from fifth to third, after which the safety car was deployed due to the stranded car of Daniel Cao in the gravel at turn one.

Quinn wasted no time at the restart, immediately putting daylight between himself and Jamie Caroline. Piastri perfected the restart and found himself in the slipstream of Caroline down the main straight, but was unable to pull off a move into Clervaux. The Aussie persisted though, sneaking past later on the restart lap, with Ayrton Simmons and Linus Lundqvist (Double R) achieving the same feat moments later at Complex and Hairpin.

Out front Quinn set about pulling away from the squabbling field behind and brought team-mate Piastri with him. At one stage Piastri looked to have more pace, dancing all over the gearbox of Quinn. The team-mates provided a thrilling show with Quinn doing brilliantly to keep Piastri behind to take his first win with TRS Arden in British F4, adding to his collection of three wins from last season when he won the Rookie title.

“From my point of view that was almost the perfect race,” said a jubilant Quinn. “I got such a good start to pass Ayrton off the line and take the lead.

“Oscar put me under enormous pressure towards the end of the race. We both broke away from the rest of the field which was really nice to see and this one-two is a great result for TRS Arden.

“It means a lot to finally get this first win with them. There’s been so much hard work from both myself and the team to get this victory. I hope it will be the first of many.”

“It would have been nice to get first,” added Piastri. “I didn’t want to risk it all trying to pass my team-mate though. This is a great result for the team and a massive haul of points.

“My start was really good. I managed to get past Logan and Ayrton and then Jamie went off the track which allowed me to get up to second and close up to Alex. As they squabbled behind we were able to break clear.

“The car felt really good out on track. I cannot thank Arden enough and obviously Alex’s was very quick too. The team are doing a great job, as they have been all season.”

Logan Sargeant (Carlin) completed the podium and made it a brace of third place finishes for the weekend. Despite a far from ideal start which saw him drop a couple places from fourth, he put on a brilliant fightback which featured some skilful overtaking, not least on championship leader Jamie Caroline at Sunny In.

“I didn’t get the start I would have liked and fell back to sixth position,” commented Sargeant. “One of my moves was really nice. I slipped up the inside of Jamie at Sunny In. I was really pleased with that.

“I just tried to keep my nose clean and that helped me into P3. I tried to chase down the leaders, but they had too much of a gap. I want to say a big thanks to the Carlin team again. They’ve been mega. I’m happy to pick up valuable points for them and myself in the championship.

”This has definitely been one of my best races. Some of my overtakes worked and some didn’t, but that’s all part of the learning process and hopefully next time all my overtakes will work!”

Yesterday’s winner Linus Lundqvist just missed out on returning to podium in fourth, but brought home another strong points score ahead of the final race of the weekend from which he will start from pole.

Fortec Motorsport’s Oliver York worked his way up from ninth to fifth and return to the top step of the Ford F4 Challenge Cup podium, while team-mate Hampus Ericsson finished third in class and broke into the points to finish ninth.

Said Ford F4 Challenge Cup class winner York: “It was a really good race overall. There was plenty going on. The car felt amazing so huge thanks to Fortec. I had some really nice battles.

“There’s only about three clear overtaking points at this track. The move I pulled off around the outside of Pasma through the fast left and right was pretty special. We made the best of the situation in that race and hopefully we can do even better in the final race today.”

Patrik Pasma gained two places to finish sixth ahead of team-mate Caroline who fell away from the fight towards the front of the field after contact with Ayrton Simmons at Tower. The latter’s race coming to an abrupt end after it had promised so much starting from pole.

Like Simmons, Jamie Sharp’s race came to a halt on lap nine, the Sharp Motorsport driver running wide and clattering the barriers, ultimately denying him another top ten result. Karl Massaad was another not to make the chequered flag after a sizable off just three laps later which saw the red flag thrown and with it the chequer.

TRS Arden had further reason to celebrate. Not only did Olli Caldwell make history by becoming the youngest ever Formula 4 driver with his competitive debut in the race, having turned 15-years old just hours earlier, he also finished in the points. A tenth place finish a fantastic achievement having started last due to being unable to take part in qualifying yesterday because of his age. Caldwell was calm and composed in his maiden outing and gradually picked his way through the field in a performance which belied his age.

Round 15 of the F4 British Championship certified by FIA – powered by Ford EcoBoost follows at 1740.